Ticketmaster, Disney pact

Ticketmaster has entered into a four-year agreement with the Walt Disney Co. to serve as its exclusive off-site ticketing company for Disney sports teams and facilities, as well as select Disney theaters and stage produc-tions.

Ticketmaster has worked with Disney since 1993, when the company handled ducats for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The new agreement will be wider in scope, covering more segments of the company, said Terry Barnes, president and COO of Ticketmaster Ticketing Co.

Ticketmaster now handles 250,000 tickets a year for the California Angels and the Ducks. With the new pact, the company expects to sell at least one million additional tickets a year.

Mighty ducats

“We had had contracts with the Angels and the Ducks, but this our first blanket contract,” Barnes said.

In addition to the sports teams, the agreement will cover venues such as Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theater, which will host the world premiere of “The Lion King” stage show in November; the Chicago Theatre, which will open Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” in October; and the Walt Disney World Sports Facilities Complex, scheduled to open in Orlando in May. The pact excludes Disney’s theme parks.